The admirable Richard Moxham has kindly arranged for me to give a concert at Dover Grammar School (CT17 0DQ) at 730pm on Friday 21st September 2012, to which all and any MVs would be most welcome. Tickets are £5 available on the door. Hope to see you there.

For my sins, I received my secondary education at Dover Grammer School For Boys, being born and bred in the "Gateway of England". Although I now live 200 miles away, I would make a very serious attempt to be there on the night, not only to see Pete once again, but also to see how the old place has changed, as I have never been back. I wonder if they have managed to remove those stains from the chemistry lab bench...

It would take something very major to keep me away from this one, so what am I doing you ask? Answer, I will be on day one of my road trip of a lifetime - three weeks from Chicago to LA along the 'Highway That's The Best', Route 66 (With Highway 1 to San Francisco tacked on the end for good measure).

Have a good gig Pete and enjoy our cavernous Assembly Room, if that is where you will be performing.

And if any of you get to sneak along to the chemistry lab, mine was the third seat from the right, back row...

Not that he believes there's the slightest risk of anyone not getting in on the door, but those travelling long distances (as we frequently do to Atkin gigs) might prefer to have the assurance of a reserved place.

If this is you, please email the Headteacher's PA, Sue Barham with your name and ticket requirements. Sue will note your request and admission will be guaranteed. As a bonus for advance booking you'll also be entitled to a 20% reduction on the £5 ticket price.

Remember, the event is now less than 2 weeks away, on Friday September 21st -- see our front page.

If I could be confident that there were no MVs in the audience, I might be tempted to say that the place was packed to to the gunwhales and that I gave what I think may have been my best performance for at least fifteen years, but there were, I think, at least two MVs, but that neither of them is the readiest of posters.

So I will say that it was a small but unquestionably discriminating gathering - twenty-odd, I guess - and that I got away with it, I think, in spite of a throat that was running me pretty ragged by the end of the first set.

Richard Moxham, for whom this is the sixth time he's organised an Atkin gig - one at every school he's taught at - got some added value (or so he hoped) out of me by having me take part in a sort of TV chat-show on Thursday afternoon (an excellent idea for getting people to come to the school to talk about themselves and their work without their having to prepare a talk or whatever), to present the prizes at the Senior Prizegiving and give a talk (the most anxious-making thing I've done in quite a while), and to spend four hours on Friday morning with the years 11 and 12 media group, with the result that I'd been talking more or less continuously for a couple of days and that I hadn't played any music effectively for three, so I suppose I shouldn't have been all that surprised when my voice started to give out. It was mostly OK but then I'd get caught out by a catch or a cough.

I'm usually not bad at managing my voice through a cold or whatever, and I think I did a bit better in the second half, but it's still a bit ragged even now. I'm prescribing myself regular doses of the Talisker. Seems to work, but even if it doesn't, it can't hurt.

Anyway, it meant I dropped one or two things as I went along from my prepared setlist, and ended up with -

I can readily confirm that it was an exceedingly good evening and well worth the trip ! A combination of Friday evening traffic, road works and a broken-down transporter (of the plant hire, not Star Trek variety) conspired to make me miss the beginning of the gig, despite having left in good time. A small but perfectly formed crowd in a superb setting were entertained to a very high standard - nothing quite matches the chance to hear Pete perform live. Each time the venue and atmosphere make the interpretation of the songs different and I hear them in a new light. In my view, the mark of a great song is that "the thrill will never pall" as someone once said Many thanks to Pete for an excellent evening and to Richard Moxam for arranging it. Hope I can make it to Tooting Bec on the 21st of October. ChrisH

I was there but didn't post before as I'm new to the forum, but I'm not new to Pete ! As I said to another member of our select audience, they were in for a good evening as I remembered Pete from a Old Grey Whistle Test in the 70's when he played Thirty Year Man and Master of the Revels. But, as Pete says in his comments, he was rediscovered along with Clive after only possessing Master of the Revels as an LP. Then the internet arrived, and I thought "I wonder if I can find that guy Pete Atkin...?" Since then EBay allowed me to get all the LPs, then Midnight Voices got me all the cds, AND I got see Pete and Clive at The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury.

I felt privileged to get the chance to see you in our area Pete (Thanks, Richard), thoroughly enjoyed the evening (rough voice and all- and didn't regret making the choice between you or Steve Knightly.

Incidentally, Pete, I actually find "Canoe" emotional as the Apollo 13 incident happened around my birthday and I remember being gripped with the rest of the world as we all awaited a good outcome.